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this post was submitted on 15 Feb 2026
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I wonder what percent of the autism observed can be explained by the combined factors of father's age and wildfires.
That's not how interaction statistics work.
I don't claim to be an expert on genetics.
But there are experts out there researching these things.
How different genes interact and change risk. How different genes interact with specific environment or exposures and create risk.
There are scientific methods that are used to determine these things.
But it's not so easy to put out a single number that represents risk because of these complex interactions.
The statistics are harder to understand, but when they are simplified they are less accurate/true.
I'm wondering about that because at one point I did my share of similar statistics and I know this is something worth asking. There are statistic tools that are able to give this kind of answer and the results can be trustworthy if you have good data.